A redeployment of forces in Yemen’s Hodeidah by the warring parties could start “possibly even today or tomorrow,” United Nations Yemen envoy Martin Griffiths told the UN Security Council on Tuesday. The Houthis and the Yemeni government agreed at talks in Sweden in December to withdraw troops by January 7 from the Red Sea city under a truce aimed at averting a full-scale assault on the port and paving the way for negotiations to end the four-year war. But the pact stalled ...

Yemen’s government and Houthi rebels have agreed on the first phase of a pullback of forces from the key city of Hodeidah, in a deal the United Nations described Sunday as important progress. The redeployment from Hodeidah was a key provision of a ceasefire deal reached in December in Sweden, but deadlines to move forces away from the ports and parts of city have been missed. The Red Sea port is the entry point for the bulk of Yemen’s imported goods and humanitarian aid, providing a ...

The UN special envoy to Yemen on Monday said the urgency of accessing grain stores trapped in a frontline position in the port city of Hodeidah was increasing as the food was “at risk of rotting”. The World Food Programme grain stores at the Red Sea Mills are enough to feed 3.7 million people for a month and have been inaccessible for more than five months, Martin Griffiths said. The militias had shelled grain mills and silos last month where wheat is stored using a number of ...

The head of the UN mission in Yemen launched talks between the government and Houthi militias aboard a boat in the Red Sea on Sunday aimed at shoring up a ceasefire, a government official said. Retired Dutch General Patrick Cammaert chaired the meeting aboard a UN vessel docked off the coast of the flashpoint city of Hodeidah after the militias refused to hold talks in government-held areas, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity. The official said the meeting would address the ...

The UN envoy for Yemen briefly visited the flashpoint city of Hodeidah Tuesday, an official said, the diplomat’s first trip there since warring parties agreed to a ceasefire last month.Martin Griffiths was in the Red Sea port city “for a few hours” to oversee the truce deal’s implementation and “follow up on preparations” for a new monitoring mission, the UN official told AFP on condition of anonymity.Yemen’s government and Houthi militias reached a deal ...

The UN envoy for Yemen said Monday the expected timeline for a truce in the flashpoint city of Hodeidah and a prisoner swap between warring parties had been pushed back. Envoy Martin Griffiths hosted hard-won peace talks between the Yemeni government and Iran-aligned Houthi militias in Sweden last month. The two parties, who have been at war for four years, agreed at the talks to a mass prisoner swap and an ambitious ceasefire pact in Hodeidah, the Red Sea city home to the impoverished ...

Yemen’s warring parties are expected to agree the terms of a prisoner swap in about 10 days, a representative of the internationally recognized government said on Wednesday, as part of efforts to build confidence in slow-moving peace talks.The United Nations is pushing for the exchange and a peace deal in the main port city of Hodeidah to pave the way for a second round of discussions.The prisoner swap was discussed by the Iran-aligned Houthi militias and the Yemeni government in technical ...

The head of the UN monitoring team in Yemen’s Hodeidah intends to leave his position, Al Arabiya’s New York correspondent reported. Sources who spoke to Al Arabiya’s correspondent said that Cammaert’s resignation was accepted but the he would remain in his position until his replacement arrives in Yemen. However, a UN spokesperson says that the Chair of the Redeployment Coordination Committee General Patrick Cammaert continues his work in Yemen, denying media reports of ...

Fuel is being shipped illegally from Iran to Houthi militias in Yemen to finance their war against the government, according to a report by a UN panel of experts seen by AFP. The findings are expected to again raise questions about Iran's support for the Houthis in the war. In its final report for 2018, the panel said it had "identified a small number of companies, both within Yemen and outside, which operated as front companies," using fake documents to conceal fuel donations. The ...

The United Nations Security Council has unanimously voted to authorize the deployment of up to 75 observers to Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah for six months to monitor the ceasefire. The unarmed monitors would be sent to Hodeida and its port along with the ports of Saleef and Ras Issa for an initial period of six months. The port of Hodeida is the entry point for the bulk of Yemen’s supplies of imported goods and humanitarian aid. Talks between the Yemeni government and Houthi ...